Decision released in protest denial of DOD DISA IT engineering development and sustainment services requirement

DIGEST

Agency reasonably rejected protester’s proposal where the offeror failed to submit its proposal in accordance with the solicitation’s instructions, and where those instructions were not reasonably susceptible to more than one interpretation.

DISCUSSION

Central to this protest is whether NGS’s failure to submit its DD Form 254 as a fillable PDF reasonably constituted grounds for its exclusion from the competition under the terms of the RFP.  The protester contends the solicitation, by its terms, did not require that an offeror submit its DD Form 254 as a fillable PDF form.  In the alternative, NGS argues the solicitation was latently ambiguous as to whether an offeror’s submitted DD Form 254 was required to be still-fillable after submission.  For the reasons that follow, we find no basis to sustain the protest.  First, contrary to the protester’s assertion, we conclude the solicitation did require offerors to submit a fillable PDF version of their submitted DD Form 254.  The RFP included as an attachment a fillable PDF version of DD Form 254.  AR, Tab 2, attach. 3, DD Form 254.  The solicitation expressly stated that the DD Form 254 “shall be submitted in the original Government-provided, Attachment 3, PDF form.”  RFP at 2.  This original PDF form was the fillable PDF version included as an attachment to the RFP.  Moreover, the solicitation goes on to explain that “the original fillable form and format shall be submitted with proposals[.]”  Id.  If an offeror failed to comply with this requirement, “the offeror will be ineligible for award and their proposal will not be considered further.”  Id.  In our view, the solicitation clearly required offerors to submit a still-fillable PDF form with its proposal submission.  Second, and in the alternative, the protester contends the solicitation provision governing the submission of the DD Form 254 was latently ambiguous and subject to multiple reasonable interpretations.  Protest at 5-6; Comments at 7-9.  DISA, in response argues the plain language of the solicitation has only one reasonable interpretation–that the completed version of the DD Form 254 was required to be submitted in the original, fillable PDF format…

DECISION

New Generation Solution, LLC (NGS), a small business joint venture of McLean, Virginia, protests its elimination from the competition under request for proposals (RFP) No. 832268164, issued by the Department of Defense, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) for information technology engineering development and sustainment services.  The protester contends the agency’s decision to eliminate its proposal from the competition was contrary to the terms of the solicitation, or, in the alternative, the solicitation was latently ambiguous.  We deny the protest.

See the decision here.

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